A little while ago, I wrote about how League of Legends is taking more steps to prevent botting, smurfing, and other forms of cheating. Obviously, every publisher will tell you that cheating is bad, and they hate it. But Riot really has stepped it up, as Yillang "Peter" "Doublelift" Peng found out. He's temporarily banned for using an alternate account for an unranked to challenger run.
These challenges are highly controversial. Content creators argue that they have educational value, especially for players who complain that they are hardstuck in a certain rank. Watching a more talented player obliterate the rank you've been at two years quickly puts the lie to theories of "ELO Hell," confirming the uncomfortable truth that you are probably at the rank you belong at in your favorite game.
But what is equally true is that having a pro player in a game's lowest levels ruins countless matches, both by giving the winning team rank it didn't earn and putting the losing team in a match it stood no chance of winning.
Even more matches are ruined because players must be at least level 30 to play ranked. Many players use bots to achieve this, compromising the outcomes of those games. Doublelift confirmed he did not the level the account he got banned on.
"As you guys might've guessed, I did not level this account by hand. I'm not going to say I did a good thing... but I didn't really expect Riot to take it that seriously," Doublelift told his stream after learning of his ban." I'm going to be going on a little bit of a vacation soon, a little Riot-mandated vacation."
After one angry player explained that boosting was their primary source of income, Drew Levin of Riot's product and strategy team referred them to the career page at McDonald's. Riot out here literally telling boosters they about to be flippin' burgers, I love it.